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Welcome to my blog. I am honored to have you visit. I hope you'll find my articles a blessing. I welcome your input and especially comments and questions.

I write as a Christian from Jerusalem, Israel about Biblical subjects.

I am particularly interested in the subjects of children, families, women's issues, corporal punishment, science and nature as these subjects relate to the Holy Scriptures.

For more information, see my website: www.biblechild.com

With every good wish - Samuel Martin

Thursday, June 28, 2012

It may not exactly take a village to raise a child, but what happens in the village certainly contributes to and can influence the raising of children. - Part 1

Announcement: As of May 4, 2012, Samuel Martin's book "Thy Rod and
Thy Staff, They Comfort Me: Christians and the Spanking Controversy" is
now available for free - To download the book for free, visit these sites:

http://whynottrainachild.com/2013/06/22/download-martins-book/ or

http://parentingfreedom.com/samuelmartin.pdf

It
may not exactly take a village to raise a child,

but
what happens in the village certainly contributes to and can influence the
raising of children. - Part 1

I was thinking of late about a book
written by our Secretary of State, and wanted to say something about it because
I think that this book may have within its pages some learning opportunities
which we all may be able to profit from.

I myself have not read the book and
I do not at this time plan to. I am not recommending that anyone necessarily
buy the book. Having said that, I think that there may be in the idea of “It
takes a village to raise a child”, a small kernel of truth which some of us
interested in looking to extract from the Holy Scriptures a more accurate
picture of ancient times can perhaps profit from.

I know this is a controversial book
because many of the political opponents of Mrs. Clinton quickly countered her
arguments saying that she was wrong and the focus solely should be on the role
of the immediate family rather than the village. Such political discussions are
not of interest to me. What I want to know is what influence did the concept of
“village” have on the people who lived in ancient times in the Biblical context
and how did that concept influence their behavior? What I want to know is the
following:

1.Did
the Biblical society influence the collective behavior of people?

2.Does
today’s society influence the collective behavior of people?

3.Do
societal rules influence the behavior of those who are members of that society?

4.If
so, what role did the use of “the rod” for “corrective purposes” have in that
society?

This could be a very complicated and
intricate argument, but I am going to do my best to keep this discussion on the
light side.

Generally speaking, many Christian
advocates of the “rod of correction” demand that parents use the rod on
children with little seeming discussion or regard for the social environment in
which the use of the same rod is (or was) taking place. Were they to look at
the whole picture of what was not only happening in ancient times, but also
what might be happening even around us today, we might find that what may have
been the case at one time, might not be relevant for today. We can also say
that what was taking place under one faith environment might need to be
modified under a different faith environment. More on that later.

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About Me

Samuel Martin was born in England and is the youngest child of Dr. Ernest L. and Helen R. Martin, who are both Americans. He lived in the UK for the first 7 years of his life before moving to the USA with his family at age 7. He lived in the USA until 2001 when he married a native Israeli and relocated to live in Jerusalem. He and his wife, Sonia, have 2 daughters.
His experience with biblical scholarship began at an early age. His father initiated a program in conjunction with Hebrew Univ. and Prof. Benjamin Mazar, where over a 5 year period, some 450 college students came to work on an archaeological excavation in Jerusalem starting in 1969. Since that first trip, Samuel has visited Israel on 14 different occasions living more than 5 years of his life in the country. He has toured all areas of Israel as well as worked in several archaeological excavations.
Today, he has begun his academic career publishing 2 books dealing with biblical issues.
I write regularly on biblical subjects with a particular interest in children, families, nature, science and the Bible,and gender in the Biblical context.